When the Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature were unveiled on Thursday, Democracy Now! saw that we had interviewed the directors and subjects of three out of five selected films. Last year, we sat down with filmmakers who tackled topics ranging from rampant sexual assault in the U.S. military to the historic efforts of the early AIDS movement, to the nonviolent struggles of Palestinians against an Israeli separation wall. Watch our...

For more than two decades, Michael Moore has been one of the most politically active, provocative and successful documentary filmmakers in the business. We talk to Moore about his new memoir, "Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life," which comprises 20 biographic vignettes that capture how his political and sociological viewpoints developed. He also discusses the numerous attacks and death threats he received after speaking out...

The environmental contamination and human health risk associated with the extraction of natural gas using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” was little known across the United States for years, until a documentary film brought the issue to the national stage. Josh Fox directed the film Gasland, which chronicles the devastation affecting communities where fracking is taking place and the influence of the natural gas...

We host a joint interview with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore and Wendell Potter, who was the head of corporate communications for the health insurance giant CIGNA when Moore’s film Sicko was released in 2007. Potter left the company in 2008 and has since become the industry’s most prominent whistleblower. In the interview, Potter apologizes for his role in the industry’s attack on Moore and the film.

In a Democracy Now! special broadcast, we spend the hour with one of the most famous independent filmmakers in the world: Michael Moore. For the past twenty years, Michael has been one of the most politically active, provocative and successful documentary filmmakers in the business. His films include Roger & me; Fahrenheit 9/11; Bowling for Columbine, for which he won the Academy Award; and his latest, Capitalism: A Love Story.[includes...

The Academy Award-winning film The Cove opened last month in Japan after months of protests by right-wing activists who had pressured some cinemas into canceling screenings. The film documents how a group of activists and filmmakers used hidden cameras to expose the annual slaughter of over 20,000 dolphins in the small Japanese fishing village of Taiji, 200 miles southeast of Tokyo. We speak with the film’s director, Louie Psihoyos, and...

Sunday was an historic day in Hollywood. Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman in history to win the best director award at the Oscars. Bigelow’s film The Hurt Locker won a total of six Oscars, including best picture and best screenplay. And Geoffrey Fletcher became the first African American to win an Oscar for best writing. He won best adapted screenplay for the film Precious. Meanwhile, Mo’Nique won the best supporting actress...

In the Loop takes the view that the US-UK effort to attack Iraq was so absurd that it’s perfect fodder for a comedy. The Oscar-nominated film is a satire of the Anglo-American diplomatic wrangling in the lead-up to the war. We speak to In the Loop director and co-writer Armando Iannucci. [includes rush transcript]

Chinese courts are cracking down on dissident activists. Liu Xiaobo lost his appeal Thursday and now faces eleven years in prison for advocating political reform. Earlier this week, another prominent writer and activist, Tan Zuoren, was sentenced to five years in prison. Zuoren had been campaigning on behalf of thousands of parents whose children were killed when shabbily built schools collapsed in the massive Sichuan earthquake two years ago....